Arts graduate Duduza Mchunu is using creativity as a platform for self-discovery

Based in Cape Town, Duduza Mchunu is a creative director, social media activist and fine arts graduate.

Known to many as Unity Bond from the hit internet series The Foxy Five, Duduza — who also has an interest in fashion and has featured in fashion campaigns — mentions that the main reason she took to academia was to have “a better understanding and different viewpoint for fashion, specifically in the manner in which fashion has different ways of communicating to the masses when presented and branded in a specific way”.

Having majored in printmaking from UCT’s Michaelis School of Fine Art, the Honours graduate creates work that seeks to challenge the status quo and speak for marginalised bodies. Her visual art and involvement in The Foxy Five series is testament to this.

When asked if she has any similarities with Unity Bond, she says, “I guess the aspect of being an extreme truth teller, no jokes and no sugar coating but also being able to see everyone’s perspective and being super, super diplomatic, but I feel like I have way more imperfections than Unity Bond, I feel like I’m constantly trying to figure myself out.”

Although her major was in printmaking, Duduza says she has not made prints recently because she has been more drawn to the digital side — partly due to being a millennial and cyber space becoming the main platform of communication and expression for her generation.

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